Agriculture Daily News March 27

A judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit by San Francisco and Santa Clara counties challenging the state's policy of dropping low-income youths from Medi-Cal when they are held in juvenile hall. SF Chronicle 3/27/08

 

Under pressure from the food industry, the Agriculture Department is considering a proposal not to identify retailers where tainted meat went for sale except in cases of serious health risk. Had that been the rule in place last month, consumers would not have been told if their supermarkets sold meat from a Southern California slaughterhouse that triggered the biggest beef recall in U.S. history. LA Times 3/27/08

 

With grain prices soaring, farm income at record highs and the federal budget deficit widening, the subsidies and handouts given to American farmers would seem vulnerable to a serious pruning. But it appears that farmers, at least so far, have succeeded in stopping the strongest effort in years to shrink the government safety net that doles out billions of dollars to them each year. Rep. Ron Kind, a Democrat from Wisconsin, sponsored a measure that would have slashed about $10 billion over five years in subsidies -- and saw it get crushed on the House floor. Wall Street Journal 3/27/08

 

Six years after a California law was signed requiring speedier health care visits, the problems remain: a half-hour on hold, a 45-minute stint in the waiting room to see a physician, a long delay to see a specialist and weeks to get an appointment. Capitol Weekly 3/27/08

 

"Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?," is a four-part PBS series that explores why social factors - economic status, race, neighborhood conditions - can be more powerful predictors of health and life expectancy than biology or even some behaviors such as smoking. SF Chronicle 3/27/08

 

The water content of the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which holds more H{-2}0 than the biggest man-made reservoir, is about equal to the long-term average, despite an extremely dry March, state hydrologists said Wednesday. Measurements at historic Phillips Station, next to the Sierra-at-Tahoe resort, on Wednesday found 98 percent of the normal amount of water in the snow for this time of year, said Ted Thomas, the spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources. That's almost twice as much water as last year, but Thomas said it isn't enough to fill the reservoirs when the snow melts in the spring and summer. SF Chronicle 3/27/08

 

The Sierra, one of the state's primary sources of water, is poised to finish the season with an average snowpack, making it clear there is no drought in California. SJ Mercury 3/27/08